The tree is down, the decorations are boxed away, and all the good holiday candy is gone. You’ve looked ahead to the new year and, like a good businessperson, set new goals. (Tip: Read last month’s blog on how setting boundaries is important to setting and achieving new goals.).

And here you are with your shiny new goals. But it’s not enough to admire them, you must act on them. Now what?

Time to be deliberate in everything we do

That’s the mantra at Measured Results – being deliberate in all things. But what does it mean?

Let’s start with what “deliberate” does NOT mean:

  • It does not mean doing something just because it’s what you’ve done in previous years,
  • It does not mean doing things just because they’re “the way we do things around here,”
  • It does not mean doing things just because they’re trendy – or trending on social media (even among “thought leaders”),
  • It does not mean doing things just because they’re easy to do, easy to verify, easy to cross off your list.

Being deliberate means:

  • Pursuing tasks that are logically and measurably tied to your goals,
  • Prioritizing activities that can make the greatest contributions to your objectives,
  • Taking pains to complete the ancillary work (such as training, or new application implementations) needed to fulfill your objectives,

But most of all – and this is the Big Takeaway I want to give all of you this season –

Being deliberate means creating and maintaining programs and processes that will march your company toward your goals.

A program or process is a series of practical, repeatable steps you and your colleagues use to fulfill tasks related to your goals.

As a leader, therefore, your job is to translate the enthusiasm you have for this year’s goals into clear and actionable processes.

For example:

  • If your goal is to increase this year’s number of qualified leads, ask yourself what processes you need to establish this year to reach your more ambitious target;
  • If your goal is greater efficiency (more output per unit of effort), you may want to eliminate some time-consuming chores while introducing more productive tasks;
  • If your goal is to build stronger business relationships with your top clients, you need to establish protocols for contact and communications;
  • And so on.

The point is that attitude must be matched with aptitude – great enthusiasm for goals must be married to deliberate processes that can fulfill them.

Hint: If your goals involve the introduction of new technology (or upgrades to current tech), I invite you to give me a shout: Measured Results specializes in the establishment of processes tied to your specific goals.